


Wicked Cycles

by Emriel



Series: Jenova's Call [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Puppet Cloud Strife, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21802009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emriel/pseuds/Emriel
Summary: The planet was dying, and the curse of Geostigma was coming back. Cloud is sent back to the past, but not exactly the way he was originally. For he was not there to be the hero... but the opposite.
Relationships: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Series: Jenova's Call [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786561
Comments: 7
Kudos: 197





	Wicked Cycles

**Author's Note:**

> It would have been a much longer story. But it's more like a dream sequence in my head.

Mako was green, neon green, the kind that was blinding once you got too close to it.

It burned the skin, and not one person was able to survive it except for Sephiroth.

Cloud often wondered how Sephiroth managed to return from the dead, as if his presence was already _eternal_ and the curse was there, for he had his cells, and the longer he stayed alive, the longer he was giving the chance for Sephiroth to come back.

Over and over again.

His _puppet._

And Cloud felt it, the hands and that dark sensual voice, that called out to him to just “ _give in_.”

* * *

Cloud woke up, looking at the clock. There was a beeping sound, Marlene. A voice message.

“Hey Cloud, the others are meeting up in Seventh Heaven tonight. Are you coming? Denzel wants to say something too… Please say you’ll go?”

Cloud turned it off and went back to sleep.

The geostigma was gone, but when he fought Sephiroth back then, he said that he will never be a memory. The planet was still dying but it was repairing itself, it seemed.

A sudden pain assaulted him, as a voice of _mother_ came.

“ _You do not belong here, my child. Go meet your brother… Set sail… and devour the planets.”_

Cloud coughed and stared at the sudden monochrome of the room, and saw the curse spreading again.

* * *

Will Aerith bless them with rain once more? Cloud went back to the church and plucked a flower that was glowing there.

And yet something in the rain was green.

Just like Mako.

It was tainted.

“What if...”

_Too late, Cloud._

* * *

“Mother?”

The words were upon his lips as if every part of his cell was responding, and Cloud looked down in horror, with his gloved hands holding onto the First Tsurugi. He tried to stop himself, knowing something was inherently wrong when he couldn’t even control his body.

And when the doors to the church were opened, they were too late when he separated the swords and commanded them to stab himself.

And Cloud struggled to pull them out, but a voice in his head said, “ _You’re coming home. Back to me.”_

His body fell onto the pool, and with that his consciousness.

“Cloud!”

“Hurry! Get the Phoenix down… before he fades?!”

But before they could revive him, his body was gone, absorbed by the lifestream.

* * *

Cloud saw white, and a sad hymn.

“Poor child, you always wanted to be with my son… I’ve granted you a wish. To start over… but this time, you will be _mine._ ”

A beautiful woman held out a hand to him. Her hair was purple, shining in the light, like silver, and gold, wispy as if they held a life of her own. And he could not see her eyes. She had wings. To Cloud who had neither thoughts or memories, staring up at the kind visage of the woman, he could only smile and reach out.

And Cloud felt complete as the alien warmth came to embrace him.

* * *

When Cloud came to, he was enlisted in the army of Shinra and he knew that he was from the future, sent back by his mother to save Sephiroth.

He could not truly recall the exact events, but he knew that he must meet the General.

_Reunion_.

It was singing in his veins and it was an eminent call.

“Strife, are you paying attention? Could you care to demonstrate your proficiency with the fire materia.”

Several people started laughing as he was called out, Cloud merely glared at them.

He took the offered materia, slotted it on standard army issued bracer and cast “Firaga.” at the object their sergeant was pointing at.

Cloud scoffed when they started shouting, and when the fire alarm blared.

He blinked when he was pulled out, classes cancelled. “Hey thanks, Cloud. You saved us from that boring lecture.”

Another cadet yawned, “Didn’t know you were such a genius with Materia. Been hiding it from us all along, weren’t you?”

Cloud shifted his eyes, and saw a familiar red-head who was looking at him with a curious set of eyes.

* * *

Cloud knew that others were suspicious of him, so he cooked up an excuse, “A close friend died.”

That shut most of them up. The memories before coming to his younger body were unknown to him, however, he knew that his body was already adapting to his presence.

His eyes were glowing.

It wouldn’t be long until others noticed and he might be kicked out of the program or taken as a lab experiment.

With this in mind, Cloud knew that it was rather urgent for him to complete his mission, to return the favor his mother gave him.

* * *

He spied the General along with his two companions, Genesis Rhapsosdos and the mentor of his old friend, Zack.

At the thought of Zack, indescribable emotions started but he stamped it down.

* * *

He made sure to hide his tracks, even if stealth was not his best skill. He recalled a faceless young lady but couldn’t come up with the name who was possibly better at him… and taught him a trick or two.

Cloud hid behind a wall, they were on the thirtieth floor of Shinra’s Headquarters, restricted but the codes came easy to him and it was easy to overpower it with… Mako, interestingly enough.

“Come out. I know you’ve been following me all day long.”

The General unsheathed the Masamune. Cloud came out.

“Who-”

“ _Mother sent me here. To see you. I’m here to serve you, Sephiroth._ ”

Cloud looked up at the Hero of Wutai, the man he admired with all his heart and killed more times than he could count.

And yet, seeing the man in person brought fear out of him which had his breath quickening.

Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed even further until they were thin slits.

“What is the meaning of this, cadet?”

Cloud blinked at the warring feelings, and yet there was a killer migraine. “Re-reunion…”

And he dashed close enough to the man, touching him.

That was all it needed.

And together, Sephiroth fell to the ground with him.

“I… see.”

* * *

Sephiroth carried the boy to his private quarters.

The images that flew in his head, of burning Nibelheim, of the madness that consumed him when realization upon realization piled up, that his whole life was a lie, and that the mother he truly cared for was that of the Cetra… the ancients, and the sudden call of wanting to touch _Cloud Strife_ filled his mind.

“ _I brought him here to you my Son. He is useful. Drain the planet of its blood, and set sail for the Cosmos... This cycle will never end until you have fulfilled this…”_

Cloud merely frowned on the bed, looking all too young to be a battle hardened warrior.

There was a part of him that was still clinging to reality, his current one, and yet, the promise of power. The madness…

And the part of him, a part of himself from within the planet that knew the boy was his fated… How cruel was fate that his own mother would betray him in this.

And only one way to test it.

Sephiroth stood in front of the mirror, wondering if a wing will sprout. The one wing.

And a pain on his left shoulder blade was all the warning until a wing tore itself out of his back.

Cloud groaned, and woke up, seeing familiar black feathers around him.

Sephiroth never felt so alone, and so he sat there in silence. A dark wing upon his back. The knowledge that the two of his closest friends will betray him, and before it could happen, perhaps he should kill them.

Cloud knew what it felt… the sense of impending doom after learning what it was like to grow in Hojo’s labs until he lost all sense of self.

He knew something important was missing, but soon there was an arm around him, and a hand tilting his chin.

“Cloud, _my puppet_ , let us pull out the wing from you as well. You’ve never been able to do it before, since you never _accepted the call… but now you should be able to_.”

And Cloud nodded as the cells responded.

He gasped when a white wing tore from his back, opposite Sephiroth’s dark ones.

Green cat eyes watched him as Cloud merely collapsed forward, wings twitching behind him.

“It feels rather disquieting to have it, but know how to use it altogether. How can one fly with just one wing…? Have we ascended soldiers… are we like summons? Mother says we are different. These questions plagued me and yet I had none to ponder them with.”

Cloud felt Sephiroth speaking in his head, despite him not even moving his mouth to speak. And when he was pushed down to the bed, with the man pressing lips onto him, he could only look up at the ceiling.

“ _Shall I bring back an ounce of your memories, so you can gaze back at me with hatred?”_

_“...but I love you.”_

Sephiroth smiled bitterly. “That I know, it is the only reason I’ve allowed you to kill me, again and again… but now I know mother will not stop and will not grant me the rest that I so desire… then I might as well burn the world for her… when you cannot even _stop me._ ”

"What of your friends?... Do you not want others to come with _us."_

_"No my puppet. You are enough_."

There was no time to waste. Millions of bodies will soon cease breathing.

* * *

Shinra was reduced to rubble overnight. The Hero of Wutai turned traitor, and cities began preparing for war, as they were attacked one after another. Dying one by one. Children died of sickness, worse than geostigma. They died within days, of drinking contaminated water.

Cloud dazedly followed his master along, wondering what he had lost and how much he gained. Sephiroth would tell him of stories of how once, he was on the opposite side, always fighting him, always trying to reason out... And that he had friends. Cloud knew this was true, but could not summon the energy or the emotion to feel angry.

There was fear, for he knew the Masamune tore him multiple times, and he did want to be on the receiving edge of the ire of the man he loved.

When Sephiroth called forth the ability to move the planet, as if it was a ship and they the rudder, he did not know _where_ exactly they would go, but he listened, and they went, passing by one planet after the other, growing stronger, conquering, killing, and sailing for the _others_.

There were times Cloud would tend to a flower. Remembering another kind smile, quite unlike the warm smile of his mother. More. Real and Sephiroth merely let him. As if the sadness he felt was an illusion.

But he heard the voice of mother and had a body pressed next to him. It was warm. The many colors of the galaxy passed them, and time blurred into nothingness, and coalescence.


End file.
